I've got news!

Nothing like news to put a spark in our heart and pep in our step. I've been sitting on my news waiting for just the right moment and here it is.

Granddog Missie stars in this series

BIG NEWS for me: I've signed a new contract with Five Star for the third book in my Cleopatra Jones series. Since Cleo's an accountant, my books have a money theme. DIME IF I KNOW follows On the Nickel and In for a Penny. This time around Cleo's golf pro boyfriend is suspected of murdering a former girlfriend. The release date is still to be announced, but it's party time in Maggie-World!

Maggie, on left, with Polly Iyer

GOOD NEWS - the fourth outing of my pacing workshop, this time at the Upstate SC Sisters in Crime monthly meeting, was met with smiles all around. My friend Terri Ridgell prompted me to create this workshop for the Amelia Island Book Festival in 2007. Since then, I've given it at the Florida Heritage Book Festival, the Ancient City Romance Writers, and now, SINC. I get a big kick out of showing things with terrible pacing and then taking them apart to make the pacing better.

Here's an example of poor pacing from my workshop: On December 24, no, wait, I think it was the 23rd. No, I was right the first time, it was the 24th because that's the day Amy skinned her knee. Anyway, my insomnia was acting up again. My wife was sound asleep. The kids were snoozing. Even Benjie's teenage anorexic mouse was sawing zees.

If you get rid of the extraneous stuff to keep it in the moment, it pares down to: On Dec 24 I couldn't sleep. My wife, kids and the mouse were out cold. -- bottom line, not very interesting. More fun before, but too dithery for an opening of my work. (The opening of a story is a promise from the author that the rest of the work will be written in the same style)

If you look at the word choices and consider meter and beat, you might end up with something like Clement Moore wrote: Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring not even a mouse... It's all about the word choice.

There's a place and a time for having wandering prose. The secret is knowing when and where to be lean and when to dally. That's the whole point of pacing.

The end of my workshop is a creative writing exercise and folks really get into it. I hope you enjoy the photos of some of the group at work. And thanks, SINC Upstate SC, for such a warm welcome.

MORE GOOD NEWS - My work-in-progress has been through the plot edit, the characterization edit, the Margie Lawson color-coded edit, and most of it has been critiqued. Now I'm letting it rest a week while I work on the synopsis. Then it will get another read, this time on my Kindle, before it heads out to my editor. I'm pretty psyched about this story. It follows the adventures of the cop from Muddy Waters and a hunky arson investigator. Lots of action and romance in HOT WATER!

EVEN MORE GOOD NEWS - The large print edition of Death, Island Style is available now. Here's the listing at Amazon if large print is your thing: http://tinyurl.com/7r7vagc. I've ordered postcard mailers for library notification, and those should arrive any day now.

This book is flying off the shelf (big smile here) with great reviews like these:

“an exciting whodunit” – Publishers Weekly

“Toussaint creates a gutsy heroine whose struggles with murder and romance add up to a very enjoyable read” – Kirkus Reviews

“Eccentric and fun, this book is definitely worth a read” – Romantic Times

“Toussaint's feel-good stand-alone flies by as her initially wimpy heroine develops a backbone and comes out a winner on all fronts. Nice regional flair.” – Library Journal

Thanks for sharing in  my good news! Wishing everyone a happy June.

Maggie Toussaint

Like me on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MaggieToussaintAuthor#

Pacing - the red haired stepchild



Maggie talks about pacing



Everyone knows a song has lyrics, a melody, and a beat. Books have characters, plots, and pacing, which is the beat, or rhythm of your story. In the early days of my writing journey, I thought I knew a lot about pacing, but I had no appreciation for this fine point. Pacing is the art of how you string the words together that makes the story speed up or slow down.

To harken back to the music world, a music CD has an upbeat song track, then a song with a slower tempo. Or if you're more familiar with the world of dance, a fast dance and then a slow dance. That choreography is repeated throughout the album/CD.


Ancient City Writers working on pacing





This past Saturday, I spoke at the Ancient City Writers chapter of the Florida Writers Association in St. Augustine. I used examples of good pacing from top authors, broke their technique down into usable information nuggets, and also gave instruction on how to fix the pacing in your own story.

More writers working on pacing

After that, we had fun! I like the hands-on aspect of instruction, so here's what we did. Two names were solicitied from the about 35 attendees - Amy and Max. I asked for random professions and this is what came forward: nurse, phone technician, artist, and burglar. For character traits, the group came up with this list: aggressive, shy, twitchy eye, pushing glasses up the nose, and stutterer. The setting was a PTA Open House. The room broke into small groups and worked cooperatively for about ten minutes.

Lunch at Kingfish Grill with Dianne Ell,
Judy Weber, and Nancy Quatrano;
Jack's reflection is in the glass 

We had fabulous results. Lots of blended narrative and dialogue. Fast pacing. Slow pacing. Pacing that bridged between a fast opening and a slower finish. There are lots of talented writers in St. Augustine! When my workshop was over, I chatted with several very fired-up writers. People really seemed to have a renewed respect for pacing.

Afterwards we lunched at Kingfish Grill right on the water. What a lovely spot. I loved my Mediterranean Salad with grilled shrimp. From there, I visited Vilano Beach which was right across the bridge. What a fitting finale to a great day.

Vilano Beach in July

Thanks  to group member Jack Owen who generously shared his pictures with me!

A sunny day at the beach